The SSS Ranked Villain's Return - Chapter 15: A Little Stronger

By some ill fortune, Hikaru died in a traffic accident. He was in heaven standing in line, waiting to be judged, when he took an unexpected request to transfer his soul to a person in another world. He received an ability called Soul Board which he could use to allocate points to Skills to make himself more powerful.

But there was a catch…

「I want you to take revenge on someone for me within an hour. If you don’t, I’ll destroy your soul.」

To pull off the task assigned to him, he poured all his available points to the Stealth skill tree.

This is a story of a boy who specialized in Stealth. With his skill trees as weapons, he would demonstrate his unrivaled strength in another world.

In his previous life, because of a cultivation technique that he could not cultivate, Sword Genius Ling Dao was hunted down by the Purple Vine Holy Land multiple times. Not long ago, the Purple Vine Holy Land killed many disciple of Ling Family s. In the end, he was still suppressed by a peerless expert at the bottom of the Divine Sword Mountain. Day and night, he suffered the pain of ten thousand arrows piercing his heart!

After his reincarnation, he was Crown Prince Xiao Yao. However, because of the Sword Qi in his body, Ling Dao had become extremely weak, and was unable to cultivate. His mother had left him when he was five, in order to find a cure. His father had barged into the Celestial Dragon Forbidden Area for him a year ago and still had not returned.

The King Carefree Palace had been annihilated, Jiang Zhong fled a thousand miles away with him, and Jiang Zhong, on top of the Celestial Sect, had been humiliated … The misfortune that followed after, was that it accidentally helped him to open the peerless Desolate Immortal Slaying Force cultivation technique, and from then on embarked on a journey that defies the heavens! ” It won’t be long before I make them regret their actions! “

- Description from Novelupdates

Twelve years ago, an old beggar found an abandoned baby and took him as his own son, naming him Xu Han. But when his foster father dies, Xu Han finds himself in a training camp with dozens of other kids, though what they’re training for remains a mystery. It’s here that he meets his best friend, Liu Sheng, and life is good for a while — regular hot meals and a safe place to stay. But kids keep being taken and not coming back, and eventually, Xu Han and Liu Sheng find themselves left in the woods at night, where they discover what’s happened to the kids who disappeared before them — they’ve been turned into zombies! Can the pair destroy the zombies and survive the night, or will they be the newest victims of this twisted conspiracy?

Warning This fiction contains:

Graphic Violence Profanity Sensitive Content

Summary – Level 1:

Delve is an isekai litrpg that follows an average guy who just happened to wake up in a forest one day. He wasn’t summoned to defeat the demon lord or to save the world or anything like that, at least as far as he can tell. The only creature there to greet him was a regular old squirrel.

Soon enough, he meets other people, only to discover that he can’t speak the language, and that not everybody immediately trusts random pajama-wearing strangers they met in the middle of the wilderness. Things generally go downhill from there, at least until the blue boxes start appearing.

Delve is a story about finding your way in a new, strange, and dangerous world. It’s about avoiding death, figuring out what the heck is going on, and trying to make some friends along the way. It’s not about getting home, so much as finding a new one.

Did I mention that there will be math?

Summary – Level 2:

Okay, but what are you in for, really?

Well, this story is supposed to be realistic, or at least, as realistic as a fantasy litrpg can be. The main character doesn’t instantly become an all-powerful god and murder-hobo his way across the universe. Delve is, at its heart, a progression fantasy, but that progression is meant to feel earned. The numbers in this story actually mean something. Everything is calculated, and if you find a rounding error, I expect you to tell me about it. That said, if math isn’t your cup of tea, there is plenty more that the story has to offer. Characters are meant to feel real, and progression isn’t only about personal power; it’s also about allies, connections, and above all, knowledge. Figuring out how the system works is a significant theme.

...

What, you want more details? Okay, fine, but this is going to get a bit spoiler-y. Are you sure?

Yes!

Really sure? I mean, this summary is practically half as long as the first chap–

Now!

Okay, okay!

The main character becomes a magic user, but he takes a route that is not very popular in adventurer culture, namely that of a support. There is a full magic system with various spells, skills, and abilities, but our MC decides that aura magic is the way to go, and that the only stat worth investing in is mana regeneration. Most people at the Adventurer’s Guild think that this makes him a bit of a dumbass, but he’s playing the long game. We’ll see how that works out for him, won’t we?

Because of his build, the MC levels up fast, at least compared to normal people. There are no cheats, though, and he is limited in other ways. There are some clear and pretty obvious downsides to his build. That’s what makes it fun, no?

Morals? Our MC has them. Again, we’ll see how that works out for him. Realism, remember? Would you be okay with killing someone and looting their body? I sure hope not.

POV? The focus is on the main character, but there will be occasional varying perspectives from people around him, or involved in the events related to the main plot. It isn’t going to jump all over the place.

Tech is standard medieval stasis. No smartphones, but the MC does have a technical background. Computers and their programming might be involved. There might even be a bit of uplifting down the road, who knows? Anyway, it isn’t the focus. He isn’t going to invent the gun in chapter 1 and change the face of warfare.

Romance is not a major focus. Friendships are more the name of the game, though there will be some characters in romantic relationships.

There is exploration, though not as much of the geographical nature as you might expect. It is more about exploration of the system and the culture.

The pace is slow and detailed, sometimes verging on slice-of-life. The action is meant to be realistic and grounded in the numbers, and it is intended to have meaning beyond simply punching things until they stop moving.

The general tone of the story is grey, and some parts can get quite dark. People die. Sometimes, people with names, but not anywhere near GoT level. There is plenty of light, too, though, to balance the darkness. The world is dangerous, but overcoming that danger is why we’re all here, isn’t it?

Anyway, if you’ve made it this far through the summary, you clearly like words. I hope you enjoy the story!